Chapter Thirty-Three

Holding her breath, Natalie watched frozen in fear as the door swung open, but upon seeing the person who entered, she breathed in a sigh of relief. "John!"

"Natalie!" Letting the gun fall to his side, John began to rush toward her, but stopped suddenly when he noticed Jessica cowering behind her sister. "Jessica?" the confusion was evident in his voice as he stood staring between the two sisters.

"There's no time to explain, we have to get out of here before Mitch comes back." Natalie said as she started to frantically move her hands hoping the knots would come undone.

"Mitch?" Jessica's voice was panic stricken, "How can that be? I killed him, he's dead."

Seeing that her sister was on the verge of hysterics, Natalie turned away from John and faced her twin. "Jessica, we don't have time for this. You need to be strong."

"Can someone please explain what's going on? You don't mean Mitch Laurence do you?" John's mind was racing as he tried to make sense of it all.

Natalie looked back at John. "Yes. Mitch had been stalking us; he's also been using Jessica. He's managed to program her into creating another alter named Michelle, and he's been controlling her. John we don't have much time, we need to get out of here."

Nodding, Jessica finally snapped out of her terror and began to work on the knots that were binding Natalie. But just as they came undone, footsteps began echoing out in the hallway and the three of them looked over at the door in concern.

"He's carrying a gun John and he won't hesitate to shoot. Mitch isn't like Haver or Hayes, as sick as he is and as much as he wants to torment us, he won't risk himself." Natalie whispered worriedly as she went over and helped a slightly-shaking Jessica to her feet. "What are we going to do?"

Just as he opened his mouth to speak Jessica turned toward Natalie with a look of determination on her face. "You need to hit me."

"What?" Natalie glanced skeptically at Jessica. "Why would I hit you?"

"You need to make it look like you overpowered me. John give me your gun." John also turned and looked at her in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"You said it yourself Natalie, he's programmed me to do what he wants. If he comes in here and sees us together he'll know I broke out of his control and he'll try to draw me back in. I can't go back there. You need to give me the gun, and hit me so that when he gets in here he thinks you overpowered me and are escaping. But we need to hurry!"

Hearing the footsteps that were fast approaching, John stared down at Natalie. He didn't like this plan one bit, but knew it could be their only chance. "Natalie?" he said hesitantly, his eyes asking the unspoken question of, 'can we trust her?'

Glancing between her boyfriend and sister, Natalie finally nodded, "give her the gun." She watched as Jessica took John's gun and waited until it was safely placed in the pocket of her overcoat before drawing her arm back and striking Jessica across the face. "I trust Jessica with my life."

Jessica had just hit the floor when the door swung open and Mitch walked into the room.

Jumping out of his car, Bo ran over to the officer who had been first on the scene. "Anything?"

But the younger man shook his head. "Nothing, Commissioner. Since it's a Saturday most of the surrounding buildings are empty, but I did evacuate the few people that were in there."

"Have you seen anyone around the windows of the warehouse?"

"No."

Bo sighed and turned toward the warehouse. As they were unsure as to who or what they were up against, Bo knew his team had to be careful, but at same time a part of him wanted to rush in after his niece himself. Not only was Natalie like a daughter to him but she had selflessly exchanged herself in order to save his son, an act which Bo knew he could never repay. Taking a few deep breaths, he turned back to his team.

"O'Ryan, what have we learned about the warehouse?"

Stepping forward the officer laid the blue prints over the hood of his car. "It used to be the offices of a construction company so there are about 20 rooms inside. It had been vacant for the past two years, but was rented out four months ago under the name 'Lazarus'."

Bo's eye's widened in shock. "Michael Lazarus?"

O'Ryan nodded. "Yeah. The home address listed for him is bogus…" the officer trailed off when Bo held up his hand to stop him.

Pulling out his cell phone, Bo quickly dialed Llanfair and waiting anxiously for someone to answer. Finally, Nash picked up the phone, "Hello?"

"Nash it's Bo, listen is Jessica there?"

"No… I haven't seen her since yesterday; she said there was an emergency at the banner she needed to take care of. Why is everything okay?"

"I need to talk to Clint."

Within seconds his brothers voice came on the line, "Bo, what's going on? Have you found Natalie yet?"

Bo took another steadying breath and turned away from the team of officers that were now staring at him. "No, but Clint… it looks like Mitch Laurence is back and I think he might have Jessica too."